Synonyms of murky

murky

adjective

ˈmər-kē 

1

as in darkened

being without light or without much light

I didn't like walking around the murky campground without a flashlight

Synonyms & Similar Words

• darkened
• dark
• black
• obscured
• obscure
• dim
• gloomy
• somber
• dusky
• lightless
• darkish
• stygian
• darkling
• dusk
• unlit
• dimmed
• pitch-black
• tenebrous
• pitch-dark
• darksome
• pitchy
• caliginous
• rayless
• shadowy
• twilit
• misty
• shady
• crepuscular
• gray
• clouded
• cloudy
• moonless
• tenebrific
• starless
• lackluster
• foggy
• dulled
• pale
• dull
• smoggy
• leaden
• fuliginous
• soupy
• sunless
• befogged
• shadowlike
• beclouded

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• light
• bright
• brilliant
• luminous
• illuminated
• lucid
• shining
• sparkling
• lucent
• lit
• illumined
• brightened
• glaring
• resplendent
• radiant
• incandescent
• lightsome
• glowing
• effulgent
• beamy
• shiny
• lambent
• glossy
• lustrous
• alight
• beaming
• moonlit
• highlighted
• aglitter
• sunlit
• relucent
• agleam
• ultrabright
• moony
• spotlighted
• ablaze
• starlit
• floodlit

2

as in dark

causing or marked by an atmosphere lacking in cheer

the murky shadows of the cemetery

Synonyms & Similar Words

• dark
• bleak
• somber
• lonely
• depressive
• depressing
• desolate
• darkening
• solemn
• gray
• cold
• morbid
• blue
• lonesome
• black
• miserable
• gloomy
• cloudy
• dismal
• wretched
• dreary
• cheerless
• sullen
• depressed
• sad
• chill
• funereal
• lugubrious
• dire
• oppressive
• morose
• glum
• forlorn
• sepulchral
• saturnine
• elegiac
• disconsolate
• comfortless
• melancholy
• tenebrous
• drear
• godforsaken
• dreich
• unhappy
• desperate
• dim
• dull
• sunless
• plutonian
• grim
• Cimmerian
• hopeless
• negative
• mournful
• melancholic
• tenebrific
• woeful
• menacing
• woebegone
• low
• discouraging
• dismaying
• dejected
• distressful
• mirthless
• dispiriting
• upsetting
• distressing
• pessimistic
• despondent
• down
• disheartening
• droopy
• drab
• inconsolable
• discomfiting
• sorrowful
• lamentable
• colorless
• plaintive
• hangdog
• dour
• threatening
• lowering
• lowery

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• bright
• friendly
• cheerful
• cheery
• festive
• cordial
• gay
• comforting
• sunshiny
• joyous
• buoyant
• merry
• joyful
• jolly
• gay
• optimistic
• blithe
• mirthful
• hopeful
• encouraging
• heartwarming
• cheering
• blithesome
• jocund
• lighthearted
• lightsome

3

as in hazy

filled with or dimmed by fine particles (as of dust or water) in suspension

skies made murky from the smoke of forest fires that were many miles to the west

Synonyms & Similar Words

• hazy
• misty
• rainy
• clouded
• foggy
• thick
• cloudy
• muddy
• smoggy
• smoky
• milky
• soupy
• gauzy
• befogged
• turbid
• beclouded
• slimy
• overcast
• brumous
• mucky
• stormy
• slushy
• opaque
• dirty
• miasmic
• smudgy
• miasmatic
• sooty
• miasmal
• miry
• filmy

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• clear
• limpid
• cloudless
• bright
• clean
• unclouded
• pellucid
• sunny
• fair
• transparent
• translucent
• sunshiny
• clement

4

as in ambiguous

having an often intentionally veiled or uncertain meaning

a murky reply to a question about his intentions

Synonyms & Similar Words

• ambiguous
• cryptic
• dark
• obscure
• mysterious
• enigmatic
• unclear
• vague
• mystic
• opaque
• nebulous
• esoteric
• questionable
• inscrutable
• deep
• uncertain
• equivocal
• arcane
• occult
• confusing
• Delphic
• fuliginous
• hazy
• elliptical
• shadowy
• muddy
• obscurant
• complicated
• fuzzy
• indistinct
• eerie
• foggy
• weird
• misty
• clouded
• shrouded
• double-edged
• recondite
• abstruse
• cloudy
• uncanny
• difficult
• faint
• undefined
• dim
• cloaked
• complex
• shaded
• incomprehensible
• disguised
• inexplicable
• indirect
• undetermined
• perplexing
• indecipherable
• masked
• puzzling
• inexact
• indefinite
• indistinguishable
• concealed
• invisible
• baffling
• intangible
• impenetrable
• unknowable
• noncommittal
• obfuscatory
• bewildering
• unfathomable
• confounding
• mystifying
• unanswerable
• impalpable
• inexplicit
• befogged
• beclouded
• sphinxlike
• inappreciable
• shadowlike
• circuitous
• obtuse
• bedimmed
• roundabout
• obnubilated

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• clear
• obvious
• plain
• unambiguous
• accessible
• understandable
• distinct
• unequivocal
• certain
• bright
• evident
• comprehensible
• legible
• intelligible
• strong
• sure
• firm
• pellucid
• knowable
• defined
• direct
• nonambiguous
• straightforward
• fathomable
• explicit
• definite
• visible
• determined
• exact
• self-evident
• self-explanatory
• tangible
• appreciable
• palpable
• unmistakable
• blatant
• patent

5

as in vague

not seen or understood clearly

a gubernatorial candidate with a murky position on the hot-button issue of capital punishment

Synonyms & Similar Words

• vague
• hazy
• faint
• unclear
• shadowy
• dark
• pale
• indistinct
• nebulous
• fuzzy
• foggy
• opaque
• misty
• obscure
• blurry
• undefined
• dim
• undetermined
• indefinite
• indistinguishable
• bleary
• blear
• gauzy
• gloomy
• dusky
• mysterious
• invisible
• intangible
• puzzling
• incomprehensible
• inexplicable
• impalpable
• inappreciable
• indiscernible
• indecipherable
• obfuscatory
• hieroglyphic

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• clear
• definite
• obvious
• distinct
• bright
• evident
• plain
• certain
• pellucid
• strong
• sure
• firm

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of murky

The area sits within the Lake Superior clay plain, where the surrounding soil is largely composed of clay, which can make the water murky and obscure objects beneath the surface. — Andrea Margolis, FOXNews.com, 23 Oct. 2026

Advertisement Prigozhin’s fate is only the most spectacular entry on a longer, murkier list. — Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, Time, 22 Oct. 2026

This is a volatile figure quarter to quarter, and Capital One can always pull back marketing in times when the economic picture looks murky. — Jeff Marks, CNBC, 20 Oct. 2026

Deft plotting, vivid characterization, and murky shenanigans power this relentlessly entertaining tale. — Monitor Reviewers, Christian Science Monitor, 19 Oct. 2026